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Dec 31, 2015

18A. Red-eyes, e.g. : LATE FLIGHTS. I pretty much unilaterally declared a few years ago that I won't take red-eyes anymore. I fly the day before and get a good night's sleep.

24A. Wouldn't accept excuses : DEMANDED RESULTS

31A. Hospital department : PEDIATRICS

41A. Black suit component : ACE OF CLUBS. I wanted "Ace of Spades" to mark the passing of Motörhead's Ian Fraser "Lemmy" Kilmister on Tuesday. I saw the band in LA about 15 years ago and I'm not sure my eardrums have recovered. RIP. Not to everyone's taste, so no link.

51A. Retirement party speeches, typically : GLOWING TRIBUTES

58A. Like some weightlifters, and a hint to this puzzle's circles : MUSCLE-BOUND. Lovely reveal - the muscles start and finish - so bind - the theme entries.

Well done, Jeffrey. I'm not sure if the head-to-tail order of the theme entries was intentional, but I hope it was. I loved this puzzle. It took me almost as long as the Sunday LAT and I enjoyed every minute of figuring out where I was going wrong. After my first pass, I had so much white space and a few "maybe" entries that I thought I'd post the grid I had at that point to show you the mess I was in:

Oh dear! Bottom-up and right-to-left corrections fixed everything eventually, but it certainly was a fun journey.Across:

1. Dernier __ : CRI. The latest fashion. I'm not familiar with the term, but it's a crossword staple.

4. They may have EIKs : APTS. Eat-In Kitchens. I'm not familiar with the term. Do you sense a pattern here?

8. Savory Asian pastry : SAMOSA. Food! I'm familiar with the term. Yay! (Crafty cook tip - if you want to make quick and easy samosas, slice a flour tortilla across the equator and fold & fill from there).

23. Points for a free throw : ONE. Kareem made a few of these on his way to 38,387 career points.

29. 14th-century Russian prince : IVAN II

30. "Grandma" co-star : TOMLIN

35. "Nothing special" : SO-SO

36. One on the shelf, in Christmas decor : ELF

37. Epic creator : POET

48. Number in a Verne title : EIGHTY. Not TWENTY as I confidently entered at first. "Around the World in Eighty Days". I've done the round-the-world route twice (once in each direction) on business. Burbank - Denver - Frankfurt - Mumbai - Hong Kong - San Francisco - Burbank was the most fun. LAX - Hong Kong - London - LAX seemed more of a chore.

50. "60 Minutes" humorist : ROONEY

55. Suffix with part : IAL. Boo. A suffix isn't "three letters at the end of a random word".

56. Bide __: stay briefly, to Scots : A WEE

57. "Phooey!" : DRAT

62. Choler : IRE

63. Willow flower cluster : CATKIN

64. Erase : UNDO

65. Shade source : ELM

66. To a smaller degree : LESS SO

67. Annoyance : PEST. That "Part-ial" is a pest.

68. Bad start? : DYS. Whoa! Here's a pattern.

Down:

1. Cocktail party bowlful : CLAM DIP. OK, Chex Mix - you're toast

2. Substitute for : RELIEVE

3. "That really got my goat!" : I WAS MAD

4. Silent comm. method : ASL. American Sign Language. My friend has a Masters degree in deaf studies and has taught me some rudimentary signs, enough to make a polite exit from otherwise awkward social situations.

5. Enthusiastic praise : PLAUDIT

6. King or queen : TITLE

7. Drop at a shop : SPEND. Fun clue

8. Fifth in a familiar series : SOL

9. Melodic passage : ARIOSO. I think I remembered this. Took a couple of tries after the ARI--- though.

10. Wine buys : MAGNUMS. Two bottles, or 1.5 liters. Here's a couple I pulled out of the fridge in anticipation of the holidays. They don't fit in the rack. The one on the left is signed by the winemaker.

11. "... And when I love thee not / Chaos is come again" speaker : OTHELLO

27. Quaint contraction : 'TIS. I mark my annual "oh really, is that all you've got" calendar by the first of the ADS I hear using this. This year was "Sleep Number" beds, who proclaimed in mid-November that "'Tis the season to save money on a mattress". Shame on you.

28. Nestlé's __-Caps : SNO

32. __ hall : REC

33. Martinique, par exemple : ILE. Isle, for example. What differentiates an isle and an island in English? I don't believe any other language makes the same distinction. Discuss.

34. Bus. bigwig : CFO

37. Dowel : PEG

38. Venezuela export : OIL

39. Ones who are me-deep in conversation? : EGOISTS

40. Sharp blows : THWACKS

41. Writer Rand : AYN. Gimme, thank you very much. I was struggling in the middle (and top, and bottom and left, and right).

47. __ analyst : SYSTEMS. I was one of these once. I'm not sure I really knew what I was doing. Thankfully I was working for a bank, not Boeing.

49. "Coca-Cola Cowboy" singer : TILLIS? Who?

52. Chew the fat : GAB

53. Leading 5-3, e.g. : TWO UP

54. See one's old college chums, say : REUNE. Here's my most recent "reune" in London last month with my chums. I'm the only one wearing glasses, but everyone else needed me to read the menu. What does that tell you?

58. Commonly injured knee ligament, briefly : MCL. The medial collateral ligament, not the anterior cruciate, which was my first attempt. A rugby-playing friend of mine once tore his ACL, but he insisted on describing is as his "crucial ligament" which drove me to distraction. It's on a par with someone saying "pacifically" or "supposably". You're off my Christmas Card list with any of those.

59. Federation in OPEC : UAE. The United Arab Emirates, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. It all sounds rather quaint. Are Venezuela in on the OPEC act?

61. Semicolon? : DOT. Lovely. Half a semi-colon is a single dot. Wonderful.

And with that, here's the grid, circles and all, for those of you who didn't have them in your publication. It's been a fun year, and on this New Year's Eve, please all of you be safe, love your friends and family (and tell them that you do), remember with joy all who have passed and lit up your life and be ready for a new adventure tomorrow.

Dec 30, 2015

Theme: Having a go at it - or - disappointing Yoda. The last word of multi-word in-the-language phrases are all synonyms for striving to achieve something.

17 A. It may lead to an acquisition : TAKE OVER ATTEMPT. One corporation ATTEMPTS to take over another.

28 A. Coalition : JOINT ENDEAVOR. Working together for a common goal. Rather a different shade of meaning, as compared to ATTEMPT.

48 A. With "the," one's best shot : OLD COLLEGE TRY. This is a wild and desperate ATTEMPT to achieve something, perhaps with a bit of showboating along the way.

62. Sincere intention to be fair : GOOD FAITH EFFORT. This is actually a legal term, relating to "what a reasonable person would determine is a diligent and honest EFFORT under the same set of facts or circumstances." Troutt v. City of Lawrence, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61641 (S.D. Ind. Aug. 8, 2008)

As I see it, all except JOINT ENDEAVOR carry some implication of failure, realized after the fact. Does that seem right?

Hi, gang, JazzBumpa here. Nicely constructed theme, with a couple of grid-spanners. The rest of the puzzle lies before us. Shall we do or not do?

Across

1. Coors "malternative" : ZIMA. A kinda-sorta quasi-beer-like fluid from a company that makes other beer-like fluids.

5. NFL ball carriers : RBS. Running Backs. Who will be the first to take this DF?

8. Silently understood : TACIT. That's one sense of it. Another is simply remaining silent. I have several segments of The Nutcracker marked TACIT.

34. Source of ultraviolet rays : SUN. And infra-red, and visible light, and even a small amount of X-Rays. The solar spectrum actually peaks in the visible light region. I'm not delighted with this clue.

35. Evidently is : SEEMS. Appears to be.

37. Enthusiasm : VIM. Usually travels with vigor.

39. The Masters or The Open : MAJOR. Golf tournaments.

43. Aurora's Greek counterpart : EOS. Goddess of the dawn.

45. Beat a hasty retreat : LAM. Here a verb - not it's most common usage.

47. Yawner : BORE. Uninteresting performance or presentation.

51. Dashboard meas. : MPH. Miles Per Hour.

53. __ Jose : SAN. California city. Do you know the way?

54. Race paces : TROTS. Well this interesting and brings out the pedant in me. In harness racing, there are two varieties of races, for TROTTERS and PACERS. They have distinctly different gaits, and breaking stride can lead to disqualification from a race. In other races, where you sit down right on the horse, running is done at a full gallop. So I'm not sure what this clue is getting at.

55. Met showstopper : ARIA. Opera song

57. "We can do it, team!" : LET’S GO. Closely related to the theme, but not in an appropriate location.

59. Belittle : DIS. Disrespect, in street talk.

65. Maneuver around : EVADE. Or avoid. I'm never sure.

66. Jordanian queen dowager : NOOR. Lisa Najib Halaby [b. 1951, Washington D. C.] is an American woman who became the 4th and final wife of King Hussein [d. 1999] of Jordan. She works on behalf of several international organizations.

67. Vacationing, perhaps : AWAY. Perhaps on a business trip, the lam, or playing hooky. Several possibilities.

70. Daughter of Elizabeth II : ANNE. Born Aug 15, 1950. She had two marriages and survived a kidnapping attempt. She also has a criminal record, having violated both the speed limit and the Dangerous Dogs Act. She is not to be confused with anther royal Anne who was the eponym for a common weed, a furniture design, and a neckline with a raised back and open front. Oh, yeah - the earlier ANNE was also Queen of Great Britain from 1702 until her death from a stroke in 1714.

Down

1. Pasta choice : ZITI. Medium sized pasta tubes.

2. All-in-one Apple : i-MAC. Desktop computer system.

3. Act in a conciliatory way : MAKE NICE. Whether you want to or not.

4. Log splitter : AXE. Log splitter's tool.

5. Plundered : RAVAGED. Plunder is the violent and dishonest acquisition of property. Ravage is damage severely. Not at all the same thing.

6. Khrushchev's successor : BREZHNEV. Leonid, born 1906, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982.

7. Texas ALer : STRO. Astros, an American League baseball team, inexplicably named after George Jetson's dog.

8. What Tweety tawt he taw : TAT. Like this.

9. Out of the wind : ALEE. Gimmee shelter.

10. Pitcher in the woods : CAMPER. Tent pitcher.

11. Spur on : IMPEL. Basically the same meaning as propel. The use of "IMPEL" has been steadily declining for 200 years.

12. Tribal symbol : TOTEM. A spirit being, sacred object or symbol that serves as emblm for a clan or tribe.

15. Connecticut Ivy Leaguer : YALIE. Student or graduate of Yale University. These people are also know as Elis.

Dec 26, 2015

Mr. Sessa's name in the constructor's space usually means "fail" in my
space, but today was a break from the norm. It was a long December at UPS - I was in a new position, and we had a
poorly managed peak season, but I got thru it, with just three more days to go
before it becomes a ghost town thru April. But I digress. The grid
did not seem intimidating, though I did think there were a tad too many
proper names - all of which filled in with a few perps, so not that many
WAGs. Two spanners and a 13-letter central fill, all of them not in my
wheelhouse, at least as clued;

17. Condition resulting from oversharing : FACEBOOK FATIGUE
- I am not on Facebook; however, I did karaoke at the restaurant's
annual party on Wednesday; got a lot of gaping stares - guess they
didn't think the mechanic could sing~! I know someone's phone camera
was recording; might go viral on YouTube....not

32. Noodles and beans dish : PASTA e FAGIOLI - isn't this the classic 'slander' for Italians and the language~?

Dec 25, 2015

Theme: I before E and then wait and C. Your Christmas present is a structured anagram wrapped inside a pun without any Christmas carols.

I am back for my final blog of 2015, and fittingly it is to write up a Jeffrey Wechsler creation. By my impromptu count, this will be the 15th one I have done in '15. This is a wide open grid with 63 theme letters and 93 white squares not near a black one (open). The center is a grid spanning fill with triple sevens in the NW and SW and triple sixes in the NE and SE. Each theme fill has has a very consistent four letter ending anagram with an I in the middle and a silentEat the end.

When I saw liteand mite I was thinking maybe a word ladder was coming our way, and tire seemed confirm that until rite popped into my head and then I 'saw' the earlier anagrams. I wish I could come up with a FIRE/ RIFE fill to make it a ladder as well, but I am sure JW already saw that path was closed. Lots of common crossword fill (e.g. AREA, ETNA, ETE. IRA, AMI unusual for Jeffrey) and a few of his trademark multi-word fill. Let's unwrap this baby.

19A. Word game for beginners? : SCRABBLE LITE (12). I like the clue and fill , but I did not see the gimmick here. TILE becomes LITE.

Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scornThe power of man, for none of woman bornShall harm Macbeth.

61. Robbins of "The Shawshank Redemption" : TIM. One of my top ten favorite movies, from a Stephen King story. TRAILER. (2:11)

62. "__ Man": Spencer Davis Group hit : I'M A this SONG (2:52) followed immediately by its palindromic pal....63. Côte d'Azur companion : AMI. We end with French, so I will say à bientôt, and hope you all are having a great Christmas. Thanks for sharing your lives here at the Corner. And JW, thank you for a really great year. Lemonade out.

Notes from C.C.:

1) Happy Birthday to Kathy (Yellowrocks), who's now in New York
celebrating this special day with her son and his family. She continues
to inspire me with her positive attitude facing various difficulties in
life. I'm so happy that she can now dance like she did before her knee
surgeries.

Kathy & Buddha, Japan, 2008

2) Happy Birthday also to Lorraine (Fermatprime), who's been with the blog for a long time. Lorraine is an accomplished math professor and swims daily in her own heated pool. She also does more puzzles every day than most of us.